–The Right Cards: Is foreign pressure really an effective way to get China to change its currency policy? “House of Cards” thinks so. Kent Troutman checks the data.

–Recounting the Poor: The first of the Millennium Development Goals is to halve the proportion of people with incomes below $1.25 a day. But what does this sum of money really represent? And how relevant is it today in Asia-Pacific? Anuradha Rajivan asks.

–Democratic Drama: The charge is again being leveled that Asia is ill-suited for the type of democracy that has produced peace and prosperity in the West. Jean-Pierre Lehman asks if the skeptics are right.

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